Menu

Monthly Archives: August 2007

And I don’t mean blog-convention. Because what came out of the most recent one – the idea of a blogger’s union – is first of all hilarious as a joke but sheer idiocy as a concept.

In case you hadn’t heard, it’s buzzing around the blogosphere and even MSM like AP and the Toronto Star wrote about it.

But would you (or I) have come up with this sort of ill-conceived and utterly ridiculous notion? Ask yourself these questions and see.

– Have you gone a bit too crazy in your quest for Google juice? Are you Googling (with) yourself a little too often? (Hint: you know a few too many nuggets about the people who bear the same moniker as you.)

– Are you involved in too much idle linking and not enough real-life connections?

– When someone says community centre, do you immediately think Facebook?

– Are you posting your thoughts left, right and centre (but mostly left)?

– Is your life online all high-speed with virtually no (or is it no virtual) speed bumps?

– Can you imagine yourself handing out leaflets on some seedy corner in Second Life, trying to bring down the man?

– Are you spending too many hours in front of a computer, with lots of open windows but no fresh air coming in?

If you’ve answered yes to more than two of the above, you may be a candidate for a bloggervention.

And hopefully you have a few close friends who can lure you in a room with no Wi-Fi and shake some sense into you…soon.

Do you want to know what it’s like to be at a press conference nowadays? Have a gander at Robert Scoble’s point of view.

It’s no longer about a company waiting for rapt attention or PR vying for control. It’s a new scenario with multiple conversations, photo and video uploads, MSM, micro-blogging… and of course the message from the riser, all happening simultaneously, in real time.

Except I think a blue shirt group is a dumb idea and not something I’d ever want to join. (I did a search on Facebook and it doesn’t exist though a ‘black shirt blue jeans’ group does.) My affinity for blue shirts is personal (sartorial) and not part of a larger plan.

This brings me to the multitude of groups in so-called online communities that are sprouting up like broadleaf (broadband?) weeds.

Sure, sometimes they’re a funny idea, an in-joke among friends. I get that. But I wonder if we’ve become so insecure that we seek outside validation for even the most mundane details of our lives? Do we need an ersatz community for our every whim and fancy?

I’m not saying we shouldn’t share our ideas and points of view. On the contrary. Conversation, interacting with people you often don’t know, is one of the best things about social media. But before you add to the pollution, consider whether the world needs any more granfaloons.

As for me, it’s almost time fill in my fall/winter supply of blue shirts. But that’s between me and my appointed retailer, thank you very much.